Tomofair shopping haul

Once in a while we feel the urge to buy a lot of stuff. Well what better place is there to get your shopping spree on then an indoor Japanese market? Last week we visited Tomofair, one of the biggest indoor Japanse markets of the Netherlands, Tomofair. The organization behing Tomofair is well known for their other events like Tomocon and Tomoparty. All the Tomo-events share the same mission: ‘Let’s make new friends’. All though this time our mission sounded more like: Let’s spend some money!

What to do besides the shopping?

Before we get to the part were we tell you about all the stuff we bought. Let us guide you to all the other activities that took place at Tomofair.  Because remember kids life isn’t just about buying stuff. For instance if you are the type of person that likes to dance and move around a lot (like us). Then the Dance Dance Revolution tent was definitely your thing.

If you still had some energie left you could even try some sumo wrestling or jump into a bouncy castle. Free your inner child! If you really felt like having a party then Deshima Sounds was there with some Japanese style club music to help you get your groove on. Tired of moving around? Then you could sit back, relax and listen to some Japanese fairytales or enjoy some Karaoke. We enjoyed listening to some nice Anime intro songs ourselves during our Tomofair visit. Oké we didn’t enjoyed listening to all of them but hey we appreciate the effort and peoples enthusiasm.

Girl Gamer Galaxy wouldn’t be Girl Gamer Galaxy if we didn’t try some of the games that were available at Tomofair. Next to some current-gen consoles there were at least 20 playable retro consoles available. You could even sign up voor some small game-tournaments like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros.

We love (Japanese) food!

Shopping, dancing, singing, gaming and making new friends makes a girl hungry. So of course we had to eat something. There was plenty of choice. The ‘TomoTaste’ section of Tomofair offered all kinds of Japanese dishes. Some were even prepared live like Tako Yaki a Japanese style mini pancakes with squid. And yes it was oishii (delicious)!

Still hungry or craving something sweet? The Cherry Pie Maid Café was open for everyone to have some coffee and cookies. Because every Japanese style event needs a Maid Café!

Our shopping Haul

Moving on to our shopping spree! The Tomofair standholders offered a wide variety of stuff to buy. Comic books, figurines, Japanese style clothing, boardgames, (anime) posters, cute stationary items, Manga, cosmetics, Japanese bowls and dishes and even some bonsai trees. So many stuff to buy and guess what we ended up with? A whole lot of candy!

We scored some Pokémon and Super Mario themed bubble gum, different shaped jelly’s (even a poo-shaped one), green tea cookies, caramel corn, a chocolate filled marshmallow and a strange looking package we couldn’t really place. Turns out it was a very sweet waffer cookie. We didn’t quite expect that.

The other pleasant surprise was a miniature noodle cup/bag. But instead of raw noodles the small package contained some very tasteful salty snacks. Unfortunately it was all gone in one bite.

We did buy something else next to all the Candy. Girl Gamer Galaxy loves the work of studio Ghibli, especially the movie My neighbour Totoro. So when we saw these comfy Totoro slippers we were sold immediately. Look how cute they are? Winter is coming and we are ready!

Last but not least we also had to get some Pokémon cards from a trading card vending machine. We are very pleased to obtain Persian for Girl Gamer Galaxy member Atusa (aka Perzian).

Until next time!

Feel like going to a Japanese style (indoor) market yourself after reading about our experience? Maybe we will see you there. Jaa mata (see you)! Here is a small impression of other stuff to expect at these kind of markets. In the meantime we are enjoying our candy and comfy slippers.